Summer’s Over…..training time!!!

Summer’s Over…..training time!!!

WOW! Has it been a crazy summer or what? I’m pleased to announce the newest member of the McCollum Clan….my daughter Eliana Mae McCollum was born on September 11….take that terrorists!!! She is, of course, gorgeous I was sitting in the hospital 10 days ago thinking how stinking hot it was and how much it would suck to be pregnant in Texas in August. Ouch. My wife took it like a champ and didn’t complain at all….well, maybe only a few times a day. But definitely not as much as I would have.

Then 10 days later, I’m sitting here in my favorite armchair typing this newsletter with all the doors and windows open and enjoying the breeze. Viva la Tejas! With the changing of the seasons into Fall, it’s our time to slow down a bit and recoup from the Summer craziness.

Now that your bank account has recovered from summer vacations, trips to see family, endless birthday parties, sports for the kids, house remodeling/buying/selling, its time to think about a more important investment…..when was the last time you trained with your CHL pistol, the shotgun by your bed, your AR? Yeah, that’s what I thought. So, lets talk about making a training plan.

There is a new place in town, and it’s the Dallas/Fort Worth area’s first and ONLY public force on force training center. That’s right amigos. You can now get the same training as the big dogs. LEO, military, all of them. There is nothing in the world like being trained and then let loose in a Shoot House where your job is to defend you pretend home, office, or vehicle.

Square ranges are cool and definitely important for very basic training. But when you are in a 360 degree reactive shooting environment, you realize very very very quickly that punching holes in paper is completely different than learning to defend a house. Total blast!

I met Tim Jordan in one of my CHL classes. He is the Operations Manager for Patriot Protection and has been working his butt off to get this place up and running with some incredible staff. Check out their website: http://patriotprotection.net/

After you see the cool video of some of the fun stuff you can do, go check out their prices on the list of classes (http://patriotprotection.net/courses/) !! Please listen to this next part….you cannot get this kind of training for this cheap. A basic handgun class for $80? Handgun Tactics for $175? Force on Force training for $300??!! I sincerely hope you jump on this, amigos. I’ve never heard of a force on force training class in a shoot house where you don’t even need to bring a gun or ammo for $300.

The way they do this is that they have guns and a type of ammo called simunitions (basically fake bullets that shoot a small paint ball type thing). You actually CAN’T bring your gun or ammo into the place. It’s all their equipment and various kinds of fake ammo that is 100% safe to shoot. You have gear on that they’ll give you. It’s all pain free, well taught, affordable, and close (right of the George Bush tollroad). They take beginners, special operators, and everything in between.

Summer’s over, amigos. It’s time to take care of your family. Quit drinking that Staurbucks for a week (they don’t want us CHL’ers there anyway), and you’ll have enough to take one of their fun classes. This is the real deal folks. And for the first time in DFW, now we civilians can get the training of a lifetime.

When I asked Tim a while back to tell me what it was all about, here’s what he said:

Introducing Patriot Protection, DFW’ first and only public Force on Force tactical training center. We are located off PGBT in Plano near Jupiter and Plano Parkway.

We offer self defense pistol, rifle, and CQB courses covering all skill levels from novice thru advanced scenarios. Our courses are held in our 10,000 sq foot shoot house and class room facility. All of our classes utilize Reality Based Training which maximizes the students learning process for the time spent per class, which is very different vs shooting paper silhouettes. We are also working with several of the local Police departments providing the OPFOR during SWAT training.

All courses offered by Patriot Protection are provided “turn key”. This includes firearm, appropriate amount of Non Lethal Training Ammunition, magazines, holsters, and safety gear. Please leave any of these personal items secured at home as we request that you do not bring them into our facility. Appropriate dress is suggested as in any firearms training course (Pants, belt, shirt, enclosed footwear). Two layers of clothing is recommended for our force on force training course. Our facility is completely housed Indoors with classrooms being air conditioned and ample ventilation in our range area.

Links of interest:

Weapons are all converted to fire ONLY – UTM rounds (http://utmworldwide.com/conversionkits.aspx)

I’ve been thinking how fun it would be to get a sort of Gun Exchange Program going. I’ve been letting you friends, family and students borrow my guns for years and I’ve never once had a problem with it, lost a gun, or had one damaged. We gun folks are always very respectful of other’s guns.

So I thought why not see if anyone wants me to facilitate a temporary trade. What I always do is I’ll bring a gun to whoever is borrowing it, take a photo of their Driver’s License, and give them mine to photo as well (if they want it). Then a few days later, we meet somewhere again and exchange back.

It’s a great way to learn about new guns before buying one! Contact me if you’re interested. I can set up something on the site to get this moving if enough are interested.

Guns For Sale!!!!

I’ve had several of you ask me if I had anything for sale or knew of anyone that was selling anything. Don’t forget to check out the MetroplexCHL Classifieds (http://metroplexchl.com/index.php/forum/classified) . You can always go under the “CHL Store” tab and then click on “Guns & Gear Classified”.

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HEAD’S UP – I haven’t listed it on the Classified page yet, so you get first shot at a Springfield XD .40 in great condition! One of my buddies is selling this full sized XD. It has less than 300 rounds through it. It’s in great shape and comes with a few boxes of ammo. Email me ASAP if you’re interested.

Check out my Facebook

For daily updates on news stories, legislation, guns and gear reviews, and generally pithy comments, please go to my FB page and “like” me or whatever they call it. You can go to FB and search for “MetroplexCHL” or click HERE (https://www.facebook.com/pages/MetroplexCHL/206664499348233?ref=hl) .

I know some of you aren’t into FB, and I totally understand. I’m going to try to send a few more mass emails with some of the bigger stories, but I really hate getting bombarded with mass emails. So, I assume others hate it too! I’ll play around with this and see what sort of feedback I get. If the number of emails starts driving you crazy, please send me an email ASAP…..seriously…..please. I do NOT take this stuff personally and honestly look forward to constructive feedback. So, please let me know.